Experience planes big 4: the who, what, where and why of experiences

Recently, I was talking to a client and the issue of customer experience came up. They said “we do need to fix the customer experience.” Others nodded. And from that moment on, the conversation was about people, the customer: their frustrations, their expectations, their satisfaction scores. A useful conversation, no doubt about that.

But what struck me once more was what the client didn’t bring forward initially. For example, where these customers were when the frustration happened and what they were trying to get done. And finally linking it back to why the organization was offering the experience in the first place.

This wasn’t the first time. When people talk about experiences, they typically pick one view, one lens: the customer experience, the shopping experience, the brand experience, the home experience. And that initial choice of how you focus on an experience, you can think of them as experience lenses, is often made without anyone noticing. It does quietly shape the whole conversation that follows. It sets the broad direction of a potential design solution before it’s even started.

The Experience Lenses

Let’s look at a few examples of an experience lens:

• the Customer experience: we talk about the human element and who the customer is, what they feel, and if they are satisfied.
• Shopping experience: we talk about the store, the e-commerce website, product placement, the checkout experience.
• Home experience: we talk about the family, quality time with friends, the interior design of the living room, placement of things in the kitchen.
• Brand experience: we talk about the brand promise, value proposition and how the organization engages with customers, employees and partners.

All these conversations, these lenses, are useful. None of them are wrong. But each one is part of a bigger picture. And on top of that, then there is this: the person on the other side doesn’t necessarily experience things through your lens. They experience for example a different lens first, in a different sequence, or over a longer period of time.

So instead of choosing one specific lens, I’d like us to consider four Experience planes every time we consider the experience of a product or service.

The Four Experience Planes

In this framework, I propose three major planes for every type of experience lens: people, activities, and places. An easy way to think of this is as a PERSON, doing SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE. And the fourth plane: the organization’s reason for being there, their mandate, the value proposition, brand promise, and business model, and you get the four planes containing the experience lenses:

The customer lens lives on Who, the shopping lens on What and Where, the home lens on Where and Who, and the brand lens on Why. The point isn’t to throw away your lens. It’s a “yes, and.” Keep it, and then ask what’s on the other three planes?

On each plane, one or more experience lens guide our thinking. What we place on each plane in term of design solutions – that’s when the four experience quadrants come into play:

• Brand: the promise to your audience
• Content: the information, language, data, and wisdom shared
• Product: the thing that has to work (digital or physical)
• Service: the end-to-end design including all of the above – following a red thread

Example 1: Renewing my driver’s licence (government service)

• Who: A current driver. This is similar to a customer; it’s the person we need to engage in to trigger the renewal. Usually that is through a reminder post card or email. They quickly become a user trying to finish a task. Within that role there’s variety: the commuter who renews in five minutes, the senior with a new medical condition, the newcomer who isn’t sure what’s different.
• What: Renewing their licence, but also the smaller tasks and journeys inside it: checking eligibility, finding the reminder, filling out the forms, paying, sometimes getting a new photo.
• Where: The kitchen table with a laptop, or a service centre in the municipality with a queue. Two very different places, one goal, different experiences.
• Why: Government mandate: road safety and verified identity, delivered efficiently.
• Experience quadrants:
  • Brand sets the expectation of a government that is well run and respects your time.
  • Content is a huge part of the experience: whether people understand requirements.
  • Product is the online form, the payment, the temporary license you receive in the service center.
  • Service includes the connectors between online and in person.

Example 2: Renewing my home mortgage (financial service)

• Who: Not one person but heads of household, often two partners and sometimes a broker.
• What: Comparing, deciding fixed or variable, re-qualifying, signing. Underneath sits a bigger activity: re-planning the household budget.
• Where: For one, the home, very literally. The asset being financed is the place where the decision gets made, often late in the evening at the dining table, as well as at the bank branch, through the mobile app, and/or a phone call.
• Why: The bank’s promise of trust and partnership.
• Experience quadrants:
  • Brand is whether “we’re with you for the long term” survives past the renewal letter?
  • Content is providing plain-language payment scenarios and explanations.
  • Product is the comparison online tool, the office to meet the broker or financial advisor, the stack of papers to sign and increasingly the e-signing tools.
  • Service connects the branch, the advisor, and the app.

Example 3: Ordering food from home (shopping mobile app)

• Who: The hungry person holding the phone, but is often not alone.
• What: Deciding (the hardest part), ordering, paying, waiting, receiving, eating together, and later reordering or reviewing.
• Where: The couch, not “on the go.” Mobile may be defined as “on the go,” but what if the app is most frequently used on the couch?
• Why: The brand promise is about convenience and a good evening, not about food logistics.
• Experience quadrants:
  • Brand sets the tone: Friday-night treat, or functional fuel?
  • Content covers mobile app descriptions, menus, photos, dietary information.
  • Product is the user experience or app including group ordering and the tracking screen showing progress.
  • Service connects app, restaurant, and courier experiences into one red thread.

Example 4: Youth mental health support addressing isolation and loneliness in a city

• Who: A young person, say 19, recently moved to the city for school or work.
• What: Not “accessing services.” The real activities are recognizing not feeling right, searching privately, taking a tiny first step, showing up somewhere, and coming back a second time.
• Where: The bedroom with a phone at 1 a.m. The commute. The campus. And the places the city offers, or doesn’t.
• Why: The mandate can be wellbeing and belonging, measured by connection.
• Experience quadrants:
  • Brand has to feel like an invitation, a gentle nudge, not a diagnosis.
  • Content speaks the young person’s language.
  • Product is the low-barrier digital entry point.
  • Service is the connector from screen to place to people.

Example 5: Unboxing and setting up a new phone (physical/digital product experience)

• Who: The customer at purchase, who then becomes a user within minutes and loyal client over time.
• What: Buying, Unboxing, setup, transferring data, getting email working again.
• Where: The store counter, then the kitchen table or living room at home.
• Why: The brand promise that drove the purchase.

Expand your Conversation

So what changes in practice? Not your lens. Keep talking about the customer, the shopping, the home, the brand. Just don’t stop there. Next time you’re in a design conversation and someone says “the customer experience,” try asking four short questions:

1. Who else is in this experience, and what role are they in right now?
2. What are they really trying to get done, before and after “our” part?
3. Where does it happen, and how many places does it cross?
4. Why do we offer this, and does our promise hold up on the other three planes?

Then, for each plane, ask which experience quadrant it needs the most: brand, content, product, service.

It feels messier at first. But experiences don’t come in lenses. People live them on all four planes at once. If we want intentional, connected experiences, our conversations need to cover all four too.